Intercession: Ingredients Part 1

The Vital Question: How Can I Be Forgiven?

0:09 I encourage you to turn with me in your Bibles to Romans 8, as we continue our studies in verse 34, Romans 8 and verse 34. To the conscience of any man, woman, fellow, or girl in this building this morning, we might extend that statement to include the conscience of any man, woman, fellow, or girl in the entire world. Once that conscience is made aware of the reality of sin, no question, no question is more vital, more important to that conscience than this, how may I be forgiven and know for certain that my sins will never rise up and condemn me.

1:14 No person has any grounds to believe himself a Christian to whom that question has not been at one point in his life. The most burning issue in all of life. I know that my sins will not condemn me. How may I know that I am forgiven with a forgiveness that is founded upon such principles as to be certain that it will never break down under pressure.

1:46 The pressure of my own continued sinfulness, the pressure of the burning eye of God in the day of judgment. And it's just such a question that the apostle Paul said, the apostle Paul contemplates and answers in this great text that we've been studying now for some five or six Lord's days. Who is he that condemneth? It is a man who's come to the place where his conscience has been troubled.

2:16 He has seen himself a sinner undone in the presence of God. He has seen God as the God whom he's described in the previous chapters of this letter to the church at Rome. He is a man who will judge every sin, even the thoughts and the intents of the heart. And yet he's come to the place where fully facing the reality of his sin and the reality of the God who will not bypass sin but who will judge sin and yet he dares to throw out this challenge.

2:46 Who is he that condemneth? His conscience has come under such influences as to make him absolutely confident that his sins are forgiven and will never break down. He will rise up in condemnation against him. Well, our question has been in the course of these studies, how did his conscience come to that place?

3:10 How does a man come to the point where he's able to throw out the challenge that Paul does to the entire moral universe from devils all the way to the throne of God and as it were challenge anything within that spectrum to lay a just sentence of condemnation at his feet? How did he come? How did he come that way? Well, we have seen that the answer is found in these four pillars of redemptive reality.

The Four Pillars of Redemptive Reality and Christ's Intercession

3:38 Paul's confidence that he would not be condemned was not based upon his visions, his revelations, his direct dealings with God peculiar to him as an apostle, but his confidence rested down upon these four facts concerning Jesus Christ. It is Christ Jesus that died.

4:10 Intercession. For us. So if you and I are confidence Paul, it will be a confidence derived from the knowledge of Jesus Christ. A forgiveness derived from the knowledge of Christ, but a knowledge of those distinctive saving acts of Christ.

4:34 And if you let your sins are forgiven, some supposed confidence that you will pass through their judgment and befall the other side in the presence of God. And yet you are. Ignorant of the Christ of Scripture, works of Christ and their relationship to the problem of sin. Your confidence is a mere.

5:01 It is an unfound confidence. And if you have any regard for the state of your soul, a bath that will not pass in that awful day. And so we've been seeking then to examine what it is about this person and his work in death, in resurrection, in ascension and session at the right hand of God and in the work of intercession. Which secures a just grounds of confidence that we will never be condemned.

5:35 Thus far, we ate the death of Christ in relationship to the question, who is he that condemned me? We have studied the resurrection of Christ in relationship to that great question. We have studied the ascension and Christ being seated at the right hand of God in relationship to that question. And we are presently engaged in a consideration of Paul's meaning.

Review: The Necessity and Governing Principles of Christ's Intercession

5:58 When he said. Who also maketh intercession for us. The relationship of the intercessory work of Christ to the state of no, frankly very frustrated. Because we have an unusual number of visitors this morning.

6:18 We generally have, oh I imagine, five or six or seven. But we have many more than that. And today is the third message on the intercession of Christ and it's organically tied in to the first two. And it's like trying to describe what abides.

6:32 The body is and we've already dealt with the legs and the torso and now we're about to describe the head. And if you tell a person a body is a head you haven't given them the right picture. So what I'm going to attempt to do is in about four minutes give you the substance of two hours of study together and exposition in the word that you might not be totally misled as we try to carry on the work of exposition on this theme this morning. We have seen first of all the fact of Christ interceding.

7:00 We have seen first of all the fact of Christ interceding. We have seen first of all the fact of Christ interceding. We have seen first of all the fact of Christ interceding. We have seen first of all the fact of Christ interceding.

7:04 As being absolutely necessary to our salvation. Without that no man will be saved from the condemnation of his sins without the death of Christ. We may say with equal authority no man will be safe from the condemnation of his sins without the intercession of Christ. For Paul puts his intercession under this general heading.

7:34 Who is he that condemned it? So the intercessory work of Christ must never be regarded as sort of some kind of extra. It's a little more chrome and a few options thrown into the automobile. No, no, it's the heart of the whole thing.

7:50 And without his intercession, there is no salvation. One of his intercession is the pattern of the Levitical priesthood, in which the priest had a function not only of offering sacrifice, but of going into the presence of God with the blood of that sacrifice and with the incense kindled from the coals of the sacrifice to present that sacrifice in the very presence of God. And though there was some geographical distance and some chronological separation between the work of a priest in oblation, that is, sacrifice, and his work of intercession, we must never regard these things as distinct in character, in terms of their overall function of a priest. And the whole end of sacrifice was that there might be intercession. And the whole basis of intercession was sacrifice, and sacrifice and intercession together secured the passing over of sin. And so the Lord Jesus, as we read in the book of Hebrews in particular, has fulfilled all of that typology and the work which he carries on in the presence of God now.

9:08 Just as necessary to our salvation as the work he accomplished on the cross. And we may say in a very real sense, as Hugh Martin, the very perceptive, godly theologian of a bygone generation, has said, the essence of his whole work of atonement is intercession. And the essence of intercession is atonement. And we must not separate what God has joined.

9:34 Then, last week, we considered together some of the governing principles of the intercession, the necessary work of Christ, and I shall only mention them, and then our review is done. His intercession adds nothing to the intrinsic worth of his sacrifice. We must never regard the work he does in the presence of God as filling up some lack in the work which he accomplished on the cross. No, the work of intercession does not add to the intrinsic worth of the atonement.

10:05 It simply carries on and applies all of that intercession, the infinite worth, to all the people of God. Secondly, the work of intercession is not to be construed as coercing a reluctant God to do what otherwise he would not. We must never think of Christ pleading with the Father to give some blessings that otherwise would remain in his pockets if Christ did not open them with his pleas. Never.

10:33 It is the Father who appointed him a priest. As the writer to Hebrews is so careful to point out in Hebrews 5, that no man took the work of a priest except he who was appointed to it. It was the Father that we might have all that he appointed his son as a priest. But because there are considerations of his own character and nature which must be honored in the work of salvation, the Father wills to save us in a way that his Son must intercede for the blessings which he conceived and which he himself has designed for his children.

11:12 So, be forever done with the idea that Christ, by his intercession, overcomes reluctance in the heart of the Father. Thirdly, the intercessory work of Christ conforms to the directional structure of the priestly function. Hebrews 5, Every priest is taken from among men, doing things pertaining to him who offers gifts and sacrifices. Unlike his prophetic actions, in the role in which the Lord Jesus is facing his people, in his work as a high priest, his back to his people, and he is facing the Father, not because he is indifferent to us, but because he is so concerned for us, he would in this function entreat the Father and secure blessings from the Father. And then last of all, we concluded our study last week by the observation that his intercession conforms to his present state of exaltation. It is not the intercession of the Lord Jesus in a state of humility. It is the intercession of a regal and an enthroned Christ.

12:29 Look at the text. Who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession, so that his intercession partakes of all of the qualities of his enthronement at the right hand of the Father. Hence it is a regal intercession, it is a royal, it is a kingly, which must ever characterize this work of our Lord. Well then, so much for that all too brief review, but I hope it will be helpful particularly to those coming in at this juncture in the third exposition of this.

Introduction to the Ingredients of Christ's Intercession

13:07 Now we begin this morning a consideration of the specific ingredients of our Lord's intercession. Having established the fact that he intercedes, having seen that the pattern of his intercession is the pattern of the Old Testament priesthood, having qualified that intercession by these four principles, now we come to the very heart of the issue. What are the specific ingredients or elements of his work of intercession? And as we consider the three main things which characterize his intercession and the relationship which they bear to the great question, for this is the text, who must never lose sight that he who intercedes intercedes in the uniqueness of his person as the God-man, in the uniqueness of his position as the surety and representative of his people. He always intercedes within the framework of the covenant of redemption. Lord, I come to do thy will. His intercession will always be the reflection of the will of the Father.

14:22 Then we try to take all and boil the and say this is the heart as an intercessor. Not what does his intercession secure? What are some of the characteristics of it? But we're addressing ourselves to this specific question.

14:43 Just what does he do in his work of intercession? I would suggest that that question can be answered by three words. It is a ministry or work. Words are not inspired.

15:14 I can't point you to a text. I can't point you to a text that says Christ intercedes for us and performs a work of presentation, vindication, petition. It is just mind to conveniently quote the biblical materials. Now what has made this most difficult is that because the priestly work of Christ is so vast, because it is such a complex thing involving so many strands of truth, no one author that I have read and I've read probably into the dozens now on some facets of the work of intercession comes at it quite the same way.

15:54 It's like me saying to you kids, what is a baseball made up of? Well I take the baseball and I might first of all undo the laces. Now if it's your ball you wouldn't like me to do that but I just might do that. So I take out the laces and then I take off the horse hide covers and then I unwind the string and then I find the cork center.

16:12 Well when I hold up the laces, the red laces, that's not a baseball. No, but that's what's part that goes into a baseball. The two sections of the horse hide covers, that's not a baseball but that's part of it. And if I hold up this big pile of string or if I hold up the piece of cork.

16:27 Now no one of those things is a baseball. But all of them are the essential ingredients of a baseball and when you put them all together in the right arrangement you have a baseball. Now in describing what a baseball is, somebody might start by saying a baseball is a round, a spherical object which has a cork center and they may start by holding up the piece of cork. Someone else may say a baseball is an object used in an American game in which there are red laces holding some horse hide together.

16:59 And so they might hold up the red laces and then the horse hide. Now if they're describing what a baseball is, whether they start with the cork center and end up with the laces or start with the laces and end up with the cork center, as long as they include all the ingredients of a bonafide baseball, they've described it rightly. Now I am not saying that the only way to describe a baseball is to start with the laces and then move to the horse hide covers or start with the cork center. Hence, in seeking to describe this, the problem I have faced is what apparently the godly commentators of the past have faced.

Ingredient 1: The Presentation of His Perfect Person

17:36 This is so vast a thing that it can be approached from so many ways that it's difficult to say this is it and lay it out. But I want to make an attempt and I hope the Lord will take these poor efforts and make them a means of blessing. First of all then, the work of Christ in intercession is a work of presentation. It is a work of presentation, first of all, of the perfection of his person, secondly, of the perfection of his sacrifice, and thirdly, of the imperfection of our service.

18:15 First of all, the priest interceding for us performs a work that he lends himself in the perfection of his person. Notice how the personal element is here in the text. Who is he that condemneth? That was raised from the dead.

18:45 Who in the hand of God so maketh intercession? You see, Paul is careful never that we are saved by these saving acts divorced from that unique person. The one who gives and to the work accomplished is beautifully amplified in Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 24.

19:14 It is a pivotal that brings into sharp focus the concept that the work of intercession is a work of presentation, first of all, of the perfection of his person. Hebrews 9 and verse 24. For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands like in pattern to the truth, but entered before the face of God. Now to appear before the face of God for a sanctuary, the headernacle, to do what? He forwards whatever this manifests before the face of God. In this context it has nothing to do with what Christ is receiving in his relationship to the Father. I have in John 1.1

20:28 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God and the picture there is face to face with God. The loving communion of the first and second person of the Triune Godhead. But here it says he is before the face of God and of his own person as the glorified.

21:01 And I quote now from one of God's servants who says this, commenting on this verse. His perfect manhood, his official character, his works before the throne of God. The Son of God has incarnate all that the Son of God is and all thus withal therefore is a with God in behalf of the and secure his people all of his for us. And the apostle's intercession was the presentation in the presence of the Father not with it for himself. Perfection on behalf of his people so that the presence to the matter of the sins of belief what the rainbow was

22:26 with regard to the sins of the whole creation. You remember what God said after that initial flood as recorded in Genesis 9 and verse 8. Let's look at it for a moment. One would still be a sinner and that man's sin would rise up and cry for judgment.

22:50 God makes a covenant in which he commits himself never to destroy the earth again with a flood. Now from Genesis 9 and verse 9. Creature that is with you the bird and every beast of the earth with you and of all that go out of the earth even every beast of the earth. Instinctively redundant covenant.

23:29 This is a covenant made with man and with the earth as man. And here it is. Establish my covenant with you neither shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood. Neither shall there be any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

23:49 And God said this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. You set my bow and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth and it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. I will remember my covenant which is between me and every living creature of all flesh and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all. And the bow shall be in the cloud and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. What a beautiful picture of God condescending to say that I might have a perpetual reminder of my covenant will be a constant reminder to me that though the sins and the sinfulness of my judgment I will never again inundate the earth with that judgment. Now does God need reminders? Does God as it were need to tie strings on his finger to remind himself?

25:09 Of course not. Of course not. He is infinite in his mind his faculties of remembrance as well as knowledge and yet God condescends to this arrangement that I might be encouraged to remember that God will remember and never forget. For since we are forced constantly to project weaknesses in the direction of God and think that He is like unto us and so that my judgment when the earth is consumed will flood again. So God and every time we see the rainbow we are reminded of God's commitment to that covenant which He made with the earth. May I suggest that this is a beautiful analogy of what I am driving at here with regard to the intercession of Christ. I am not saying it is a type of Christ but there is a beautiful analogy a parallel.

26:24 Jesus has taken upon himself the salvation of his people if they are ever to be decreased in the light of God's law lived out on their behalf condemnation in the death of that purity and substitute and so the Lord Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. The Father could say this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. He is keeping at every point all the requirements of my law in his thoughts in his personal in his corporate responsibilities among men in secret but once but once to be seen in the life of the Lord Jesus. And what was he that perfect light of righteousness for?

27:31 He went by there in the cross he bore the judgment of a broken law of an offended God person as Paul says in Romans 8.3 back to the right hand of the Father again representatively on behalf of his people and what is the presentation of the perfection of his person there in the presence of the Father? It is to the Father with regard to the covenant of grace what the rainbow is with regard to this covenant made with all humanity. It is the constant reminder to the Father that no stroke of wrath no stroke of judgment no stroke of judicial punishment shall fall upon one soul his Son or his Governess because he is there

28:57 in the perfection of his person a constant reminder that all of his people are perfected in him this was Paul meant when he said Ephesians 1.6 we are accepted where? in the beloved of one who truly believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is to be condemned for any sin conversion or sins committed subsequent to his being effectually called and united to Christ? It would have to be because of one of two reasons. Either the father must be displeased with his son and find some action in him. He must be cut off from that union with his son by which we are brought into the possession of his perfect righteousness. And the word of God indicates that those are two absolute impossibilities. The father has made his pronouncement concerning his son. When he raised him from the dead, this was the vindication of all that he claimed to be.

30:13 We've seen in our previous studies when he set him in his own right hand and gave him a name above every name. This was the final confirmation. My son is all he claimed to be, perfectly undefiled, separate from sinners. And so the apostle, may cry out in exultation, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that is raised from the dead, whose there was that consciousness that though he is with me and present in me by the Spirit, he is there in his glorified humanity, presenting himself in the perfection of his person. And I am accepted in the beloved one. None shall find the grounds of condemnation in me. And so the Lord Jesus is the perpetual rainbow before the eye of the Father, that God may be favorable unto us. But then in the second place, it is a

Ingredient 2: The Presentation of His Perfect Sacrifice

31:25 work of presentation not only of the perfection of His person, but of the perfection of His sacrifice. Will you turn, please, to Hebrews chapter 12? Hebrews chapter 12. As the writer to the Hebrews is enunciating the great gospel privileges to which every believer comes when he comes into the orbit of the saving work of God, he first of all states it negatively.

32:03 Ye are not come to these things. And he extracts things that were common to that time when God took His people into covenant relationship with Him at Mount Sinai, gave them the terms of the covenant and the blood of that covenant. But he says, you are come unto some other things. Verse 22. But ye, you Christians, you are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant. And to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that. It is quite obvious that the things to which believers come are present realities. The city of the living God, the

33:09 heavenly Jerusalem, the innumerable hosts of angels, the general assembly and church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, God the judge of all, the spirits of just men, so that when he says, you are also come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that, it is quite obvious that the things to which believers come are present realities. The blood of sprinkling that speaketh better than that Cuz he prop empresa この言語還 vy Heh The spelled meaning is closeness, it is conversation. The sprayed, all I need is blood in the spritz of words! The speaking is closeness. And speaking is consensus. And when it come to Jesus Christ, He comes and He comes, because everything is and who He is is nothing 外 Re lamson.xml Now in that context, let's zero in on this phrase the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abram. Because it's unremarkable, and the revelation of test Because one of the present realities of the Christian faith is that blood of Abel. And notice the reference that it's better than that of Abel.

34:20 In other words, there is a difference between what the blood of Abel spoke and what this blood speaks. Well, let's go back then to the situation in which the contrast is founded. In Genesis chapter 4, you remember the situation? To slay his brother in the field that Cain rose up against Abel, his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel, thy brother? And he said, I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?

35:14 And he said, What hast thou done?

35:27 Does blood have a voice to speak verbally? Of course not. The youngest of the kids sitting here are shaking their heads. No, of course not.

35:37 And yet God says, The voice of your brother. God is saying, I, the God who is eternal now, though the ground has absorbed it, is as freshly slain as though it just poured forth warm from the veins of your brother. And that blood cries out to me to take vengeance on the man who shed it. Because God made man in his image, there is peculiar dignity in human life.

36:14 Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. And God says, It's that shedding of your brother's blood that is present before my eye. And I cannot look with indifference upon that blood that has come from his veins. Because that blood is the token of murder.

36:33 And murder cries out for vengeance. And as it were, he says to Cain, My ear is being bombarded. A very hard upon the head of the guilty murderer. Upon the guilty murderer says, I'll have no peace until I come forth to deal.

36:56 Now it's an interesting thing. And Goodwin in his classic treatment of the intercession of Christ in this text, or his classic treatment of this text, points out that the most wicked man on earth, if he is murdered, his blood cries to God for vengeance.

37:18 The most wicked man on earth is viciously murdered. His life taken by the civil authority, which God has ordained, but he's viciously murdered. Even the most wicked, defiled man on earth, if he's murdered, his blood cries to God for vengeance upon the murderer. But now, Now, the more righteous the man is who is murdered, the more, because there is something more than justice entering here.

37:43 There is the matter of filial affection and able.

37:49 A man of faith, according to Hebrews 11, to use our contemporary terminology, he was a Christian. He was a true son of God. And so there was not only the cry of pure justice, but there was the cry in turn of the cry of justice. Let that in.

38:17 Unto Mount Sinai. Unto Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. And unto the blood sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. I say it reverently, and I've wrestled with how to say this so that I will not be inaccurate, understated, or overstated.

38:50 And I believe this is the best way, with my present understanding, I can state it. The blood of Jesus Christ is as freshly poured forth in the mind of God as though 30 seconds ago.

39:18 Blessed be God that blood speaks. Come unto the blood of sin.

40:14 Then that performs intercessor. The perfection of his sacrifice, and I don't understand,

40:40 must never regard as physically opened and perpetually bleed.

41:20 Of Judah, the root of David, overcome to open the book in the seven seals. And I saw, and in the midst of the elders, I'm mixing your figures, but it doesn't seem to bother John. Something slain doesn't stop. It lies down dead, overlaid.

42:19 And I believe it's concept that we're treating this morning.

42:57 It condemns.

43:00 Interceded. Incessant. He presents himself. Can touch you with that.

43:22 He done Calvary.

43:28 Need for me. Forgive him. Oh, that blood.

43:41 Which in the light of. Know the voice of the law of the.

43:48 Vacation. There is the voice of that blood. That speaks. And speaks better than that of Abel.

43:57 For what does that blood cries for the full forgiveness and cleansing of all sins of the present. Have you ever noticed 1 John 1, 7, a verse we quote so glibly.

44:16 We walk in the light as he is in the light. We have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus slain freshly poured forth as though he were freshly slain. It not only cries for the full pardon of all of our sins of the past and forgiveness and cleansing of all sins in the present. It cries for the conferral of all for the people.

44:51 His blood was poured out from his veins as he offered himself as a lamb without blemish and spot. What did he pour out? He's. For everyone in.

45:03 General. But certain for no one in particular. That's not what he says. Said I am come that my sheep might have life and have it more abundantly.

45:13 He loved the church and gave himself up for it. Why? That he might present it to himself without wrinkle or blood. I'm actually secure.

45:32 That was designed for sinners in the eternal. Councils of the triune Godhead.

45:40 Precious blood. I'll never lose its power. Till all the ransom. Church of.

45:47 God be saved to sin no more. He are come unto the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Now do you see why Paul could say fully conscious that even in the present hour in which he wrote these things there were the strivings and actings of indwelling sin and corruption. He could say who is Jesus that died rather than is risen from the dead who is at the right hand of God.

Ingredient 3: The Presentation of Our Imperfect Service

46:20 Who also make it intercession for us he saw his Lord in his work of presentation presenting himself in the perfection of his person presenting himself in the perfection of his sacrifice and then last of all presenting us and what would be apart from that presentation the imperfection of all our service and our worship. The mark of a true believer. Is that he longs to serve the God who has saved him. That's so clearly taught in scripture.

47:00 It's unnecessary even to quote text to prove it. Common sense would tell you that. The mark of a true believer is that he longs to serve the Lord who saved him.

47:13 Though that service is sincere. It is never perfect. And is always filled with the marks of imperfection. Divided affections in our worship and in our most intense.

47:26 Acts of devotion. Next motives in our service. How can we ever hope. That our services alone.

47:34 Won't rise up and be the basis of our judgment. There is enough in the worship of this hour. There's enough of sin in the worship of this hour. Everyone else to bring down the condemnation of almighty God upon all of us.

47:49 You haven't worshipped him with an undivided heart this morning. You haven't worshipped him as the angels do. With unsullied affection. You haven't.

47:57 Come here with absolutely pure motives. There is enough sin in the worship of this hour to condemn everyone.

48:10 And say who is he that condemneth. Why? Because he saw the Lord Jesus in his place of presentation. Presenting our service and worship.

48:21 In the virtue of his own mediation. Hence texts like 1 Peter 2.5 and Hebrews 13.15.

48:31 Should take on new meaning for us. I. Read those two texts now. 1 Peter 2.

48:37 And verse 5.

48:40 Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. To be a holy priesthood. To offer up spiritual sacrifices. Acceptable to God.

48:53 Through. It's not just a convenient thing you tack on the end of your prayers. Lord we come in Jesus name. My friend.

49:06 Unless there is that sense of the imperfection of all of this. Deeds that need.

49:16 What is pleasing.

49:21 That nothing but perfection will stand in his sight. What a blessed thing to realize. As my intercessor. I may offer up spiritual sacrifices.

49:31 Acceptable to God. What? On the basis of my performance. My earnestness.

49:37 My undivided affection. My unsullied love. No. Acceptable to God.

49:43 And how wonderfully that note was sounded. Even in the morning prayer. The sense. The consciousness.

49:54 That our life.

50:04 Hence the writer to the Hebrew says in Hebrews 13.15. Let us offer up continually the sacrifice of praise. The fruit of our lips.

50:16 Giving thanks to his name. By him. Sacrifice made acceptable. Therefore.

50:25 Painfully conscious of all the inadequacies of our service. As I am of my attempts to preach and teach the word. And of my attempts to pray. And you are.

50:35 For of your failure. In your holiest child of God. You may yet say with Paul. Who is he that condemneth?

50:45 Christ maketh intercession.

A Sobering Call to Unconverted Persons

50:51 I want to close this morning on the very sobering note. What of you. Who do not have Christ as your intercessor.

51:03 If the holiest of the holiest men and women. Are unacceptable to God without the mediation of Christ.

51:13 Without his intercession. His work of presentation. Gathering them up. Their imperfections in the virtue of his blood.

51:21 And then presenting them to the Father. What of you who came into this place this morning. With your entire.

51:31 And rebelled difference to God. And to his law. To his son. All of the covering of blood.

51:44 Dying out that vengeance might be passed over.

51:48 Oh the miserable. Frightening state of an unconverted person. Even in this building this morning. You children.

51:57 You young people. You friends. Visitors. Adults.

52:00 Members perhaps of this assembly.

52:04 Do you know that Christ is interceding for you? Do you?

52:09 If not you have no savior.

52:12 For his intercession is essential to your salvation. You say well how can I know that I come into the orbit. Of that gracious work. Where he is presenting himself.

52:23 In the perfection of his person. On my behalf. In the perfection of his sacrifice. On my behalf.

52:29 Taking my imperfect service. And making it except. How can I know. That to be in Christ.

52:36 You say how do I get into Christ. You get into Christ the only way any sinner gets into Christ. By turning from your sin. And believing.

52:47 On the Lord Jesus Christ. For union with Christ from the human perspective. Is sealed. When conscious that nothing in your hands that you could ever bring could command you to God.

53:00 You embrace that savior that is freely offered in the gospel. You say yes I do believe. God is sincere and honest. When he sets before me his son.

53:10 And says kiss the son. Believe on my son. Receive my son.

53:17 My friend it all pivots on what you do. With him. You can go out of this place. And have some opinions of what you think about it.

53:26 And it's people and it's pastor. That's of little consequence. For in that day when you stand before God. The great issue will be.

53:35 Not this people it's pastor.

53:39 But what you have. heard this morning. The Son of God who was set before you in the preaching of the Word. And if you come in that day without one as your intercessor, you will join the cry of those in Revelation chapter 6.

53:55 Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. What a mixed figure again. Wrath of the Lamb? Yes.

54:07 The Lamb will rise from His position of mediation and come forth to His position of judgment. And He will judge in perfect justice all those who did not flee for the provisions of mercy. Oh, dear people, I set before you this day the way of peace and blessing, the way of cursing and of death. May you flee to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant.

54:39 To the blood of sprinkling. And oh, to know then the blessedness as we shall see in a subsequent study that that blood that is there before the throne of God is actually according to the teaching of the Word by the Spirit applied to our consciences so that just as an Israelite could see the dried blood upon those accoutrements of sacrifice for it was not to be wiped off. And there remember God is propitious to us and has passed over sin. So the Holy Spirit applies to our conscience that blood of sprinkling. And we know that we are forgiven. Blessed be God for a Savior who not only died and rose and ascended and is seated for us, but who intercedes for us that we with Paul might say, who is he that condemneth?